


The Truth is Out There

by radioactivesaltghoul



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - 90s, Alternate Universe - X-Files Fusion, F/M, Mutual Pining, No Pregnancy, Safe to Read if You're Triggered by Pregnancy, The X-Files References, finn married rose and took her last name in this au because why not, mulder!rey, scully!ben, skinner!finn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26941501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radioactivesaltghoul/pseuds/radioactivesaltghoul
Summary: “What do you know about special agent Rey Johnson?”Ben blinks. “She’s a brilliant criminal profiler. The best in the violent crimes unit. Graduated with honors in a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, then went on to graduate at the top of her class at the FBI academy.” He pauses before adding, “I know more than a few people have called her ‘Spooky Johnson’ for her work on serial killers and the occult.”“The reason you’re here is that we want you to assist Agent Johnson with the X-Files. With your medical degree and background in hard sciences, we need someone grounded to push back against some of her more...outlandish theories,” AD Tico explains.It’s a struggle to keep the surprise out of his expression.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 25
Kudos: 46
Collections: Reylo X-Files Collection





	The Truth is Out There

**Author's Note:**

> i’ve been talking non-stop about how i want a reylo TXF au lately, and i guess i’m being the change i want to see in the world. we’re going to pretend there’s nothing questionable about a british woman taking a job at the FBI.
> 
> (if you’re thinking about writing a reylo TXF au, i beg you, _please_.)
> 
> kinda spoilers for stuff that happens early on in TXF? and some lines copped from the pilot, too, because they were too good to pass on. i wrote this basically in one sitting and without a beta, so it's a little rough, but i couldn't stop thinking about this goddamn au.

“Agent Solo,” AD Finn Tico says when Ben steps into his office. “Thank you for coming on such short notice.”

Ben eyes the two others in the room. Directors, he’d wager, judging from the way they’re watching him and AD Tico expectantly. When he informed his superior last week that he was open to being reassigned, he hadn’t expected it to happen this quickly. Nor did he expect it to be so formal, although maybe that was typical when agents were being reassigned from a teaching post at the FBI academy to elsewhere in the Bureau.

“What do you know about special agent Rey Johnson?”

Ben blinks. “She’s a brilliant criminal profiler. The best in the violent crimes unit. Graduated with honors in a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, then went on to graduate at the top of her class at the FBI academy.” He pauses before adding, “I know more than a few people have called her ‘Spooky Johnson’ for her work on serial killers and the occult.”

Tico exchanges a glance with the other directors, then says, “She’s been working without a partner for the last six months on a project outside of the bureau mainstream. What do you know about the X-Files?”

Ben is starting to see where this is going. “They have to do with unexplained phenomena,” he answers.

“The reason you’re here is that we want you to assist Agent Johnson with the X-Files. With your medical degree and background in hard sciences, we need someone grounded to push back against some of her more...outlandish theories,” Tico explains.

It’s a struggle to keep the surprise out of his expression. “Anything else?”

Tico exchanges another glance with the unnamed directors in the room. “You will write reports detailing Johnson’s activities and the work you two do in the X-Files.”

“So...you want me to debunk the X-Files?” Ben asks.

“We want you to make sure the evidence is investigated thoroughly,” Tico replies, making it clear that he won’t answer the question. “We look forward to reading your reports.”

* * *

Ben only knows Rey Johnson by reputation. He hasn’t even seen a photo of her. Based on her reputation, he’s expecting someone disheveled with a near-permanent look of intense paranoia in her eyes.

What he gets is a pretty, young, professional agent sitting at a desk in a basement covered in boxes of old files. Every square inch of the walls are covered in bulletin boards looking straight out of a mystery novel, with the exception of a large poster with a flying saucer captioned “I WANT TO BELIEVE.”

Rey Johnson is sitting at a desk, facing away from him while she analyzes a document on her desk. “Nobody here but the FBI’s most unwanted,” she quips without looking up from her document. “What can I help you—”

It’s unclear what about Ben’s appearance caused her to cut herself off, but he’s quick to answer the question anyway. “I’m Ben Solo,” he says, holding out a hand for her to shake. “I’ve been assigned to work with you.”

Rey raises an eyebrow. “Who’d you piss off to get stuck down here?”

Ben has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. “Nobody,” he says. “I’m actually looking forward to working with you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Oh really?” She’s trying to spot the lie, but he’s telling the truth. He is looking forward to this, even more so now that he knows how pretty his new partner is. Starting out a new assignment with a crush on his partner is undoubtedly a terrible idea, but he’s already fascinated by Rey’s reputation and her skepticism of his motives, something he didn’t expect given her belief in the paranormal. “I was under the impression that you were sent to spy on me.”

So it’s not skepticism, it’s paranoia. “If you have any doubt about my suitability for the job—” he starts to say, but she cuts him off.

“You’re a medical doctor who’s been teaching at the academy,” she rattles off. “You got your bachelor’s degree in physics. You’re not the only one who does their research.”

Well, they’re off to a great start.

“And please,” she says. “Call me Johnson.”

* * *

The first case Ben works on involves unexplained disappearances in a small town on the other side of the country. Johnson says the victims are being abducted by aliens right off the bat, going on about missing time and bright lights. It’s entertaining for all of five minutes before Ben is rolling his eyes, pointing out the holes in her theory.

“People go missing all the time,” he tells her. “That’s why agents like us get pulled into these cases.”

She’s driving, so she doesn’t look over at him, but he sees the corners of her lips tilt up into a smile. “I’ll make a believer of you yet, Solo.”

It’s unclear if she’s joking or not.

Ben has to admit, her attitude is a little infectious. The motel they’re staying in loses power one night while they’re going through evidence as a storm rages outside. Later, he’ll blame the soft glow of the candlelight they’re using to work by for the turn in conversation. Johnson is laying across the bed in his room and he’s sitting on the floor, leaning against it.

“My parents disappeared when I was a little kid,” she confesses. “There were bright lights. I saw them being lifted out into the sky by an unseen power, and then they were gone and I was alone.”

“I’m so sorry,” he says. Trauma can do funny things to one’s brain, especially at a young age, he knows. Johnson must have made up the story to explain her parents’ death to herself, and she’s bought into it so deeply that she still believes it, all these years later.

“That’s why I work on the X-Files,” she says. “I’m trying to solve these murders, disappearances, and other weird happenings, of course. But I’m also looking for clues as to where my parents are.”

“And you think the FBI has the answers?”

“Someone does.”

In the end, they don’t find a conclusive answer to why the murders were happening. A witness suddenly wakes from a coma and claims that he and the other victims were at a party in the woods one night, and he doesn’t remember anything in the four years since then. Ben does his best to write a thorough, scientifically-sound report, but it doesn’t hold up to his admittedly high standards.

They continue like this, investigating murders, disappearances, and other crimes happening under weird circumstances. Sometimes they can be explained by science. Often, they do truly belong in the X-Files.

And then something strange occurs. When they get caught up in a government conspiracy, she’s the only person he can rely on. There’s no one he trusts in the world more than he trusts Johnson, crazy theories and all. When she says, “Come on, we’re going to Kansas. I was tipped off by my source that the government is covering up a UFO crash,” he’s already packing his bag, ready to follow her to the end of the earth.

When he wakes from a coma with no memory of what happened to cause it, it’s Johnson who’s by his side, looking like she can’t believe he’s awake. “I was holding onto this for you,” she says, handing him the necklace with the little kyber crystal he’s worn since he was fifteen, a reminder of the Jedi faith he was raised with.

After she leaves, his mother says to him, “That woman looked like she was going to tear the world apart with her bare hands to save you.”

It’s that moment that Ben Solo realizes just how screwed he is, because he’s fallen in love with his crazy, brilliant, conspiracy theorist partner.

There are moments where he thinks she might feel the same way. He catches her staring at him out of the corner of his eye sometimes. She knows he’s still writing the reports to pass on to their superiors, and she does her best to protect him by reminding him that he’s supposed to be debunking her, not defending her.

And then Johnson shows up at his apartment one night, looking like her world is falling apart. “They’re shutting us down,” she says as soon as she’s in his apartment, locking the door behind her. “They’re shutting down the X-Files.”

Ben has known for a while that his feelings for Johnson go deeper than is probably healthy, but he didn’t know until just this moment that he loved working on the X-Files, too.

“So we fight them on it,” he says, already making to-do lists in his head. “We have a fantastic record for closing cases. They need someone to work on the unexplained cases.”

Johnson’s shaking her head, tears running down her face. “They’re splitting us up, too,” she says. “We’re being reassigned to different divisions.”

He can’t stand to see her cry like this. He steps closer, brushing the tears off of her cheeks. “What, you think a simple reassignment is going to keep us apart?” he says. “I would go to the ends of the earth for you, Johnson. Surely you know that by now.”

This is apparently too much for her, because there’s another rush of tears and Ben is pulling her in to wrap his arms around her, kissing her forehead, telling her they’ll find a way to continue their work together.

At some point in this, Johnson pulls just far enough away from him to grab him by the collar, bringing his face down to meet hers in a kiss that’s been a long time coming.

“I love you,” she whispers when they break for air. “I love you so much, Solo. But I was afraid—what if—”

He kisses her before she can spiral down one of her many conspiracy theories. “I’ve been in love with you for so long, I don’t even know when it began,” he tells her. “Keeping it from you—”

She laughs, although it’s almost more of a sob than a laugh. “I know,” she says. “Me too.”

* * *

Johnson stays the night, and the next one after that. Most of it they spend in bed, but they plot a way to reinstate the X-Files, too.

“You know you’re throwing your career down the drain, don’t you?” she says at one point while they’re lying in bed together.

Ben shrugs, even though Johnson can’t see it with the way he’s spooning her. “I figured that out a long time ago when I realized that I’d rather ruin my career than work with someone other than you.”

It’s impossible to tell from this angle, but he thinks she’s smiling. “I wasn’t too keen on having a partner for a while,” she says. He has half a mind to tell her that was obvious, but then she adds, “I’m glad it was you.”

He kisses her shoulder. “The truth is out there,” he whispers.

She turns her head to kiss him again. “Let’s go find it.”

**Author's Note:**

> i am radioactivesaltghoul on [tumblr](https://radioactivesaltghoul.tumblr.com/) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/radioactivesaltghoul) and r_saltghoul on [twitter](https://twitter.com/r_saltghoul).


End file.
